Romney's very poor choice of words

2/1/12 1:09 PM EST

Mitt Romney's had a rough day after telling CNN this morning that he’s “not concerned about the very poor.” What Romney meant was that government programs take care of the truly destitute, and that he wants to focus on the middle class. What he said was a much harsher-sounding statement of priorities that has drawn criticism from the right and left.

An interesting footnote. This isn’t the first time Romney has said this or something very much like it. I’ve heard similar words on the campaign trail. He said this in a nationally televised debate in New Hampshire last October:

If I'm going to use precious dollars to reduce taxes, I want to focus on where the people are hurting the most, and that's the middle class. I'm not worried about rich people. They are doing just fine. The very poor have a safety net, they're taken care of. But the people in the middle, the hard-working Americans, are the people who need a break, and that is why I focused my tax cut right there.

The essence of what Romney’s saying is the same in both cases, but only one involved flagrantly inept phrasing.

And perhaps more importantly, only one instance happened after Romney’s opponents in both parties spent half a month trying to define him as a rich financier who doesn’t care about regular people.